Pages

Meta

I realize I haven’t posted much about school and my new job this year, but I promise to remedy that as the school year winds down. Just as soon as I dig out from under this pile of essays and short stories that need to be graded….

I am very excited about everything this year. What I really love is that our freshman curriculum is integrated across four subjects- English, History, Biology, and Software Applications. We have a common planning period each week and work hard to integrate as much as possible. We do a ton of joint projects, work out schedules together, and share resources. In addition, I co-teach with my history partner and our curriculum revolve around each other. It’s fascinating to read The Canterbury Tales while my students are studying the Middle Ages. It really brings a whole new dimension to class discussions and activities.

Recently, our team sat down to hammer out summer reading. (nota bene: I am not a fan of prescribed summer reading, but I do believe that students should read during the summer. I believe in choice. Plus, my students are highly motivated and expect to read!) I wanted to capitalize on our inter-disciplinary team and I’m so thrilled with what we came up with. First, we decided to have One Book, One Class. All of the incoming freshman will be reading Brian Christian’s The Most Human Human: What Talking with Computers Teaches Us About What It Means to Be Alive for two reasons. First, Brian is an alum and we expect the kids to love that. Second, the book (review coming soon!) is a perfect composite of our cross-curricular team. It covers science, language, communication, computers, history, and so much more. All of the freshman will have this touchstone text and the teachers will be reading it, too.

In addition, each student is asked to select one fiction and one non-fiction title from the list we provide. On the list, we also noted our own favorites, in case students were seeking guidance. I am thrilled with this list- it provides a wide array of choices in a variety of genres and across many levels (keep in mind my students are all accelerated, so while it is a 9th grade list, it may read more like a 10th-11th grade list). Come September, the students will be meeting with others who read their book(s) and producing a project related to it. All of the books are connected to our school theme and inter-disciplinary team. I am looking forward to seeing how the assignment is received. I ran the list by a few current freshman and they loved it, and they’re the best judges!

*I should note that these aren’t paired in any particular order. Students are free to choose any F and any NF- they don’t have to choose them both from the same line. One of the activities I am considering for the first few days/as an icebreaker, is having the kids come up with ways to pair the books, after reading them!

4 Responses

Thank you for this post. What a great list. You job sound just like the job I’m starting next year; except I’ll be teaching English and History. I’ll love to get input on how to collaborate effectively.

[…] charge of their free period. That’s why my freshman colleagues and I decided to completely integrate our summer reading this summer. All of the choices on the list touch on our various subject specialties and we also […]